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WCFE-TV
WCFE-TV, virtual channel 20, is an independent station licensed to Toad Harbor, Mushroom Kingdom. The station is owned by Koopa Troop Communications, and operates as part of a duopoly with Koopa Troop Television Network owned-and-operated station WMUSH-TV (channel 54). The logo on the right is also the logo for real-life Detroit MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYD. History As an independent station The construction permit for the station went through many owners from the 1950s onward. The WWTH call letters were originally assigned to Woodward Broadcasting, but after that company went bankrupt, the license was sold to National Media (owned by the publishers of the Wyandotte, Michigan News-Herald, who also owned that city's WJJW), under which the license was granted on December 12, 1967. WWTH-TV (for W'ood'W'ard Broadcasting '''T'oad 'H'arbor) signed on the air less than four months later, on April 1, 1968. It was seemingly off the air more than it was on. At the time, the station showed conventional independent fare, along with The Adults Only Movie, a series of art films, not featuring sex or nudity—it was named "Adults Only" merely due to the films' lack of appeal to children. With a mixture of locally produced and syndicated programming, WWTH-TV remained on the air for three years to the day, powering down its transmitter at midnight on March 31, 1971, to avoid paying the following month's Mushroom Kingdom Power Commission electricity bill. A carpet store owner returned it to the air in 1972 with an eclectic type of programming. WWTH offered Japanese live-action programs and cartoons dubbed into English including Speed Racer, Ultraman, 8 Man, Prince Planet, Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero and The King Kong Show. From 1972 to 1980, it was telecasting stock market programming in the mornings, religious programming in midday, local Spanish programming in the weekday afternoons and evenings, local Italian and imported Japanese programming on Sunday nights, and B-grade movies overnight. The second incarnation of WWTH signed off on September 30, 1980. WCFE The station was then sold to Toad Harbor's largest FM radio ownership group, and also owner of the city's most popular cafe, who returned it to the air on October 6, 1980 as '''WCFE (which stood for C'a'FE, hinting one of his other operations), with a dramatically upgraded general entertainment format, featuring off-network drama shows, sitcoms, old movies, rejected CBS and NBC shows preempted by WFVE-TV (channel 5) and WTHC-TV (channel 4), music videos, religious shows. But unlike its independent competitors in that time, WUTV (channel 2, now a Fox owned-and-operated station), WNTV (channel 11, now an NBC owned-and-operated station), WICU-TV (channel 36) and WKBT (channel 44, now a CW owned-and-operated station), a majority of WCFE's programming lineup at most consisted of low-budget programs. Most memorable were the station identification breaks featuring either pets or auditioned tourists, usually Koopa Troopas, Yoshies and Bob-Omb Buddies, that would look on cue at a television screen showing the station's logo. In fact, these proved to be immensely popular—so much so that WCFE would often work together with the Mushroom Kingdom Society for Animals by displaying pets that could be adopted, along with a phone number to call with the pet's name on screen. These IDs were retired in 1997, having aired alongside "official" WB-issued WCFE IDs for the first two years of the network's existence. Other popular programming during the early and mid-1980s included the TV-20 Dance Party (originally a "Top 40" music format featuring local high schools; later a 1950s "retro" style show), and a Sunday late-night movie program. The Sunday program included studio segments at the beginning and commercial breaks of the movie, set in the fictional "Cheap-Cheep Arms Hotel" bar. Viewers were invited to join the host on the set and for a time, enjoy a sponsor's product (always a malt liquor). At one point, the owner made Toad Harbor broadcasting history by televising a 3D movie that required special glasses, Gorilla at Large. WCFE-TV continued to run a general entertainment format, and added more cartoons in the late 1980s. Beginning in September 1987, the station filled the 7 to 11 p.m. timeslot with drama series such as Perry Mason, Cannon, Lou Grant and Combat! From the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, WCFE also featured an in-studio, live kids cartoon show called Cartoon Classics. Hosted by Ze Maestro, the show offered such cartoons as Mighty Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry and Popeye. The show frequently featured local magician Magic Mike performing for the studio children. Finally the live-action in-studio segment was scrapped and the show just showed the cartoons straight. Afternoon cartoon shows such as these eventually became a thing of the past as cable television was able to feature round-the-clock cartoons aimed at younger viewers. WCFE added more sitcoms in the early 1990s. WCFE also broadcast network daytime game shows and Saturday morning cartoons not carried by WTHC and WFVE and cartoons such as NBC game shows Blockbusters, Classic Concentration and the daytime version of Win, Lose or Draw; the NBC cartoon series Alvin and the Chipmunks; the CBS game show The Price Is Right; the CBS cartoon series The Get Along Gang and Saturday Supercade; and for a few weeks, Wordplay. The CBS game show Tattletales was picked up for the WWTH schedule during the mid-1970s among its foreign language-heavy programming when WFVE did not carry its CBS feed. On Christmas Eve, normal programming would be preempted during the entire evening to allow the station to broadcast its own version of the Yule Log, a concept borrowed from WHRV in New York City (which incidentally, would also later affiliate with The WB). In the late 1980s through the mid-1990s, the station ran an "oldies dance party". In mid-January 1994, the stations began airing the Action Pack programming block with TekWar TV movie. The ratings jumped 350% over its November ratings. As a WB affiliate The station became Toad Harbor's WB affiliate, when the network launched on January 11, 1995. WCFE eventually began to upgrade its programming inventory from low-budget programming to more higher-profile syndicated programs to compete with other stations in the market and channel 20's own growth as a WB affiliate. In 1996, WCFE-TV employees attempted to organize as a collective bargaining unit under the labor union for broadcast employees, NABET. The owner and various WCFE-TV managers interfered with the organizing effort, resulting in a case before the National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB ultimately ruled against the station. In 1997, WCFE was sold for $170 million to minority-owned Granite Broadcasting, who changed the call sign to WTWB on September 15, 1997, to reflect its network affiliation (the WTWB calls were before then most recently used in 1986 on a New Line Network affiliate in Buffalo, New York, whose call sign was changed to WNLNB that year). In 1999, WTWB's operations were merged with those of then-new sister station WNTV (channel 11), who contributed a 10:00 p.m. newscast, plus simulcasts of its morning newscast, and, in return, received a temporary WB affiliation for 18 months after ultra low ratings due to fierce competition among other stations in the market after years of popularity under Turner Broadcasting System ownership forced WNTV to find a network to affiliate with. This arrangement ended in April 2002 after WNTV, by then the NBC affiliate for the Toad Harbor market, was sold to that network. Aborted sale of WTWB In September 2005, Granite announced the sale of WTWB to AM Media Holdings, Inc. (a unit of Acon Investments and several key Granite shareholders) for a price rated, on WTWB's end, to around $83 million. The low price, compared to the more than double amount Granite had purchased the station for, came out of Granite wanting to cut down its debt load while wanting to keep control of the station. On February 15, 2006, Granite announced the restructuring of the sale considering the changing conditions of the station and that AM Media Holdings may not own channel 20. In May 2006, Granite announced that it had sold WTWB to DS Audible, a new group affiliated with Canyon Capital Advisors, D.B. Zwirn & Co., Fortress Investment Group and Ramius Capital Group, among others, for $150 million cash (DS Audible Toad Harbor, LLC, would have acquired WTWB for $65.75 million). The previous agreement to sell the station to AM Media was withdrawn. On July 18, 2006, this sale also fell apart; Granite then announced it would try to find another company willing to buy WTWB. Granite filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on December 11, 2006, after missing an interest payment on its debt of more than $400 million. Return to independence On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner and CBS Corporation announced that the two companies would de-emphasize their resources into The WB and UPN and combine most of the networks' respective programming to create a new network called The CW. On the day of the announcement, the network signed a ten-year affiliation deal with CBS Corporation's UPN stations, including WKBT (and some were passed over for an affiliation deal from Tribune-owned former fellow WB affiliates). Network representatives was on record as preferring the "strongest" WB and UPN affiliates in terms of viewership, and WKBT had been well ahead of WTWB in the ratings for virtually all of UPN's run. Another new network that would launch the same month as The CW, MyNetworkTV (which debuted on September 5), ended up affiliating with former NBC affiliate turned independent WTHC-TV. Soon after the CW announcement, the station rebranded to "TV20". WTWB reverted to being an independent station on September 18, 2006 (one of two in the Toad Harbor market, alongside WICU), under the new branding as Local TV20 (based on a similar naming convention used by stations owned by Post-Newsweek Stations). In March 2008, channel 20 revived the famous station IDs that were previously used as WCFE, this time featuring, again, either pets or auditioned tourists, usually Koopa Troopas, Yoshies and Bob-Omb Buddies, sitting on a couch in front of several Toad Harbor backdrops. WTWB then became an alternate ABC affiliate, carrying programs from that network during instances where WGT-TV pre-empts regularly scheduled network programming for local breaking news coverage. On October 4, 2010, at 10:00 p.m., WTWB reverted to its previous WCFE-TV call letters, commemorating the change with a 10-minute documentary on the station's history, followed by a two-hour block of Mork & Mindy. On February 10, 2014, Koopa Troop Communications announced that it would acquire WCFE-TV from Granite Broadcasting for $110 million. The purchase created a duopoly with Koopa Troop Television Network owned-and-operated station WMUSH-TV. In addition, Koopa Troop Communications began to take over certain operations of WCFE through a time brokerage agreement until the purchase was consummated. The FCC approved the sale on May 2. The sale was completed on June 16. Category:Koopa Troop Communications Category:Channel 20 Category:Toad Harbor Category:Mushroom Kingdom Category:Television channels and stations established in 1968 Category:Independent Stations Category:Independent stations Category:Former WB affiliates Category:Former WB network affiliates Category:MeTV subchannel-only network affiliates